Article via El Planteo, the most-read cannabis media outlet in the Spanish-speaking world.
For millennia, carpets have been objects of fascination and desire. They can be extremely luxurious and expensive or used to swipe dirty feet.
Carpets materialize everywhere, in many forms. They are at your front door, outside your shower, in your living room and even in the Buckingham Palace.
But one cannabis writer has taken this fascination to a whole new level.
“Originally, I had the idea to do a travel Insta, but I didn't want fake influencer photos of private jet trips, or landmarks everyone has seen a million times. I was looking for something more intrinsic,” says Sara Brittany Somerset – SB for short.
“I've always liked colors and patterns and carpets represent everything from the utterly banal, like in Newark Airport, to the ostentatious, like in the Burj al-Arab.”
Before the pandemic hit, SB spent more time in hotels than a traveling salesman. She often recurred to apps to find the best deals.
From this practice, came the inspiration to start posting pictures using the #MyCarpetTonight hashtag, a play on words on MyHotelTonight. Soon after came #CarpetDiem, and oh how things took off.
“Soon, my friends and followers were sending me pix of carpets too, which became engaging and fun - the whole point of Insta,” she remembers.
The word spread fast among the cannabis community. Suddenly, people no longer looked at SB as she was weird whenever she stopped and pointed her camera to the floor. “Wait up for SB, she's photographing the carpet,” became a pretty standard thing to overhear.
Known for its outrageous luxury, Dubai proved to the perfect spot for SB’s photography. But the world is her oyster, and this project has managed to open many unexpected doors, both literally and figuratively.
“When I stayed at the Intercontinental in Dubai, I photographed almost every carpet in the place, like a conference room scavenger hunt. When I passed through the Amsterdam airport, the custodians were nice enough to unlock closed-off rooms to allow me to take pics of the carpets,” the traveler voices.
“In some places where there is a language barrier, I simply show them my Insta, and people immediately smile and want to help. I've passed my phone to strangers outside mosques and synagogues, and trusted them to go inside, take a carpet photo and return my phone.”
For SB, prayer rugs are the crème of the crop, “next level.”
“Once I start traveling to the MENA region again, you can expect to see many more prayer rugs on my Insta. I don't see that as cultural appropriation. More like showing the beauty of the world, one carpet at a time. Occasionally, I cheat a little, and throw in a wallpaper pic or an intriguing throw pillow – I had to get creative during the pandemic– but it's mostly pix of hotel carpets.”
But, if you love carpets, why do so many of your pics show your (let’s admit it, eccentric, fun) shoes?
“Sometimes it's hard to get the shadow of my phone or my feet out of the way. Then I noticed in those outtakes that I liked the juxtaposition or contrast of my shoes on the carpet. Plus, some of my friends were complaining that I'm never in the photos. So, I cheekily added my feet to prove I was there! I'm not big into taking selfies, but my shoe collection might be worthy of its own Insta too, so I began combining my loves. I wonder if any of my followers have a shoe fetish. One carpet pic included a shot of T-strap Mary Jane burgundy Loubies that just happened to match the carpet of the hotel, and a follower commented, ‘#shoegame #crazy,’ and I died laughing.”
Check out SB’s Insta page following this link.
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